'Maharashtra mantris having fun without any responsibility', says Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Taking a dig at CM Eknath Shinde's new government over the delay in allotting portfolios to ministers, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said the state cabinet had been finally expanded, but ministers had no portfolios and were having fun without any responsibility.
Uddhav also took a dig at CM Shinde by saying that some people feel that the Shiv Sena is an object lying in the open that anyone can pick up and take away, but this was not the case. Uddhav also took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying without naming him that some people believe the country is their own property. Thackeray asked where the state government was even as parts of the state had been affected by floods and wondered if the country was one again moving towards slavery as India celebrated its 75th Independence Day.
Thackeray was addressing Shiv Sainiks on Saturday on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of Marmik, a weekly published by the Shiv Sena.
On the Centre's Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, Uddhav asked where people who don't have homes should hoist the national flag.
"There has been heavy rain in some places in the state. But where is the government of Maharashtra? They (newly inducted ministers) are being felicitated without doing anything. But due to heavy rains, farmers are in distress," he said.
Uddhav criticised BJP president J P Nadda's statement that regional parties including Sena will perish. "We have a federal structure. Is it Nadda's opinion that regional parties should be finished? News of cost cuts in army is dangerous. The army must be huge. We have never heard China and America have reduced the size of their armies. There is money to overthrow a government. But not for the army," he said.